Mumbai Diary: Thursday Dossier

Jankee

Dawn of new music lingo
After Trance, House and EDM there's a new genre on the musical block. Meet Progressive Bollywood Electronic Dance Music.

Singing a new note: Jankee at a performance

J Progressive, a collaboration of songstress Jankee and DJ Paps, performed this genre for the first time in India last night. Having experimented with this act at bars across Europe, the duo together promises to change the way you party by bringing an amalgamation of a DJ set alongside some high tempo, non-stop Bollywood music. We added a new word to our vocabulary today.

Dial a gourmet meal, South Mumbai
Salt Water Café in Churchgate has started a delivery service, giving townies a reason to celebrate. The service will currently be available only from Colaba to Breach Candy from 9 am to 11 pm (30038033).

Bite and behold: Chaas Fried Chicken Burger

The menu reads like an endless lip-smacking treat where one can choose from their signature dishes like Chaas Fried Chicken Burger, Asparagus Roasted Garlic Emulsion Ravioli, Pan Seared John Dory, Banoffee Pie, Flourless Chocolate Fudge and a whole lot more. Dial now, shall we?

Want Darth Vader's helmet?
Fans, get ready. Many of the earliest, rarest and most prized collectibles associated with the film series will be up for auction online on December 11. Sotheby's in partnership with NIGO® are staging the auction for this film series that first hit the screen in 1977 and eventually became a powerful cultural phenomenon.

More than 600 original action figures are on offer alongside objects ranging from replica Darth Vader helmets to autographed lightsabers, vintage film posters and even a Jabba the Hutt cookie jar.

Tales from the Wiccan's mind
Why did Sonia Gandhi never let Priyanka Gandhi take over the reins of leadership of the Congress party? Why did Pranab Mukherjee not make it to the Prime Minister's chair? What is the secret behind Rekha's youthful looks? Practising Wiccan, Ipsita Roy Chakraverti seems to have all the answers about these celebrities in her new release, Beloved Witch Returns, which is a sequel to her first book, Beloved Witch.

The cover of the book

"The book is a collection of chapters from my life, including how I was introduced to the craft and a brief history of witchcraft in India," explains Chakraverti. The author is candid, and had no qualms to call herself a Wiccan during a telephonic chat with this diarist.

"Through the book, I have also tried to create awareness of how witchcraft is misinterpreted with superstition, and that many women in India are still tortured in the name of religion, and by identifying them as witches. The book speaks about how the craft can help people," she adds.

Chakraverti's Wiccan school, The Wiccan Brigade also finds a mention in this book. Now, that's what we're tempted to call an intriguing read.

Flexing his memory
Madhukar Talwalkar, (82) the grand old man of Indian bodybuilding was at a conference recently to announce the Talwalkars Classique bodybuilding competition, an elite level event for the city's top bodybuilders to be held in mid-December.

Brawn power: (fourth from left) Madhukar Talwalkar with body builders at a conference. Pic/Bipin Kokate

Talwalkar got nostalgic recalling how it all began, "My first gym was started in 1962, in Khar. My mother opened one door to that gym, my father opened the other, and that was how it was inaugurated." When told that there is a belief that the chain of gyms charged high fees, the octogenarian dismissed it saying that they are cost-effective. "If you think fitness is expensive, try illness," he stated laconically.